“It might.” I rubbed my lip. He’d confessed to being homeless, and that was huge. I could be honest too. “The apartment where I live with my mom is losing rent-stabilized status when our current lease expires. It’s why I need a full-time job, stat. My mom pays all the rent herself. I never planned to live with her forever—”

“Sure you didn’t.”

“Ha ha.” I laughed off the teasing while secretly fearing that a twenty-five-year-old woman living with her mother would be a turnoff to a man who kept fresh lime in his hotel room. “She’d never kick me out, but I hate that I can’t afford to contribute more or get my own place. And I’m not sure she’d want to move anyway. We’ve lived there since I was four. She loves it.”

“What about you? Do you love it?”

I met his eyes. “I live in a perpetual love-hate relationship with the city. It was closer to hate when I left to come here.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“No.” Admit to Finn I blamed the city and its residents for my failure to launch in career and love? Absolutely not.

He winked. “Gotcha. Is your building allowed to raise the rent? Is it legal?”

“I only skimmed the paperwork, but between my mom’s increased income and the improvements they’ve made to the common areas, like the lobby and elevators, I don’t think we have a basis to stop them.” I shrugged. “My best friend is a lawyer. I can ask her.”

“You should.”

I nodded. “Anyway, it’s not the same as being homeless. Please don’t think I’m making the comparison. But we’re in danger of losing our home, and I’m scared.”

“So write this story and get the full-time position.”

There was so much sincerity in his expression, it threatened to steal my breath. “You make it sound so simple.”

“Why is it complicated?” Finn leaned toward me, keeping his hands on the edge of the bed.

I took a sip of my drink. The clinking noise of the ice moving around the glass was the only sound in the room. “I compared Pleasant Hollow to a Hallmark movie town in my pitch, so, well, you tell me why it’s complicated.”

He clucked his tongue. “No pie. No corn maze. No Oktoberfest. No warmth.”

“You watch Hallmark movies too, huh?” I teased, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“I have a sister. And I’ve dated one or two women in my life.”

Something sharp poked at my gut at the thought of Finn with a girlfriend. “So you must know that in the movies, a city developer coming to town is always a bad thing and the locals lose their minds over it.”

Finn’s lips formed a circle like he was about to whistle. “This explains your antagonism toward my boss.”